Sanding unfinished necks?
- Thread starter cromulent
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ragamuffin
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If you're talking about trying to slim down the neck, it's pretty difficult to do so evenly using sandpaper. Generally a mix of files and scrapers are used to shape a neck. If you're lucky enough to have a good luthier who builds guitars in the area I would take it to them to have it done.
NedRyerson
Senior Member
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He said "girthy," not "gritty."
As for warnings, removing material will take forever to do with sandpaper. Since you've never done this before, the other caution is that frustration at the slow pace can kick in, which leads to more aggressive handling (either lower grits, greater pressure, or both) and it's a very, VERY fine line between "just enough" and "too much."
Rather than risking a $400-500 (or more) mistake, if you don't like how it feels, take it to someone with experience along with an example neck profile you DO like and let them handle it. A couple hundred for their time & expertise will be worth it.
An alternative, though, is to buy an el-cheapo neck from somewhere like GFS or an import knock-off from eBay or AMZ and practice your sanding technique on those. Better to trash one of those things than a WM!
S
Spud
Guest
I have done this before on two Warmoth maple fatbacks. I used a combo of palm sander, sandpaper, and sanding sponges. It was slow and tedious. I constantly checked what I was doing with calipers. I took them both from 1.0" at the first fret to .88" just enough to make them work for me. In the end, I would do it again if necessary but it wasn't fun. Also, I knew going in that there was a chance of disaster.
S
Spud
Guest
I really am not sure either, hence the risk.
S
Spud
Guest
Also it is hard to keep everything perfectly symmetrical. I would stop worrying ahead of time and play it a bit when you get it. I like the fatbacks for lazy thumb over the top blues bending, but found it just a bit too uncomfortable for playing some other things.
NedRyerson
Senior Member
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I saw a post over on TalkBass that discussed thinning the profile of a neck. Difficult to just dive into as a first-time project because of the variables like symmetry and also not cutting through to the truss channel. The discussion involved measuring the estimated amount of material using a caliper to measure the space through the truss access (if available and accessible).
That made me reevaluate my original plan of thinning down one of my 5-string basses' necks when I go to do the 8-string conversion. Especially since I don't know for sure whether the neck has reinforcement rods (it was a no-name import kit, so who knows?) and the added tension of more strings.
So, long & short of it is, we're not saying don't do it. Just beware that there is a very, very high chance of messing it up royally. You can take material off but you can't put it back on. Verbal warnings via text can only go so far and do so much.
Just like how I knew intellectually how dangerous routers can be, I didn't really know until I saw photos of router injuries and also experienced kickback personally (getting a guitar body to the gut is .... painful).
That made me reevaluate my original plan of thinning down one of my 5-string basses' necks when I go to do the 8-string conversion. Especially since I don't know for sure whether the neck has reinforcement rods (it was a no-name import kit, so who knows?) and the added tension of more strings.
So, long & short of it is, we're not saying don't do it. Just beware that there is a very, very high chance of messing it up royally. You can take material off but you can't put it back on. Verbal warnings via text can only go so far and do so much.
Just like how I knew intellectually how dangerous routers can be, I didn't really know until I saw photos of router injuries and also experienced kickback personally (getting a guitar body to the gut is .... painful).
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